A Year

At Nuoding Academy's training ground at night, three figures moved like phantoms, chasing one another through the darkness, two in front and one behind.

"Ha ha. Little San, Xiao Wu, don't run! Come have some fun with Brother Qiu!" The figure in the back laughed heartily while continuing to tease them.

Tang San and Xiao Wu's faces darkened. Fun, their asses. This guy was as tough as if he were wearing thorn armor—he could neither be hurt nor controlled. The moment Blue Silver Grass's First Spirit Ability wrapped around him, it was torn to shreds. Tang San was beginning to doubt life itself. His Blue Silver Grass was incredibly resilient; it could bend a tree as thick as a calf ninety degrees without breaking.

As for Xiao Wu's Soft Technique, there was even less to say. Even when her legs wrapped around Ye Zhiqiu's neck, she could not twist him at all. It was utterly useless, completely countered. If Xiao Wu forced it, she would only end up hurting herself.

After nearly a year of improvement from the Shukaku Origin, Ye Zhiqiu's physique had become inhumanly powerful, having risen by countless levels compared to before.

Now, even Tang San and Xiao Wu, both at rank 17 Soul Power, were no match for Ye Zhiqiu when working together. There was no helping it—they simply could not hurt him. Landing a punch on Ye Zhiqiu felt like scratching an itch.

Of course, that was assuming Tang San did not use Hidden Weapons. The destructive power of Hidden Weapons was still formidable.

However, Ye Zhiqiu had trump cards he had not used either. He had not spent this past year idly. During the first week after school began, he had already bought the Eight Gates of Dunjia.

After nearly a year, Ye Zhiqiu had accumulated close to 15,000 Negative Emotion Value. It was a little low, because the students of Nuoding Academy had gradually grown accustomed to Ye Zhiqiu's repeated beatings.

Naturally, the Negative Emotion Value increased more slowly, which left Ye Zhiqiu rather helpless. It seemed he had sheared all the sheep bald. "No more, no more! Brother Qiu, your physique is practically comparable to a humanoid spirit beast. You get stronger every day—this is way too outrageous!" Xiao Wu stopped, panting heavily as she complained. She truly could not run anymore.

Tang San looked somewhat better, with only his chest rising and falling slightly. Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track allowed him to evade Ye Zhiqiu's attacks while conserving a great deal of strength.

Looking at Ye Zhiqiu, who had stopped not far from them without even changing expression, Tang San gave a bitter laugh. Ah Qiu's progress was simply too fast, especially his physique. It was practically cheating.

When school had first started, Tang San and Xiao Wu could each spar with Ye Zhiqiu one-on-one and basically maintain the upper hand. That was without Ye Zhiqiu using the Sharingan, with both sides competing only in physical combat techniques.

Yet, after roughly a few months, even without using the Sharingan, Ye Zhiqiu could rely on his powerful physique and rapidly improving combat skills to crush Xiao Wu and fight Tang San, going all out, to a draw.

This did not mean that there was some enormous gap between Xiao Wu and Tang San. It was simply that each person excelled in different areas.

At this point, Xiao Wu's Soft Technique had basically lost much of its effect against Ye Zhiqiu, whose physique was growing stronger by the day. Tang San, on the other hand, could only barely fight him to a draw by using Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to keep up a prolonged battle.

Half a year later, Tang San and Xiao Wu had begun joining forces. Do not misunderstand—they did not join forces because they could defeat Ye Zhiqiu. It merely allowed them to lose with slightly less embarrassment.

Now, nearly a year had passed. Although Tang San and Xiao Wu's coordination had grown increasingly seamless, Ye Zhiqiu still had them completely under control. So long as Tang San did not use powerful Hidden Weapons, Ye Zhiqiu could easily crush the two of them, and that was without opening the Eight Gates of Dunjia. With Ye Zhiqiu's current physique, he could open the first three gates without injury and open the fourth gate while only suffering minor injuries.

The Eight Gates of Dunjia were like shackles on the human body. Every shackle opened caused every attribute to surge geometrically.

Ye Zhiqiu did not even need to open the third gate. He only needed to open the body's first gate, the "Open" Gate, and Tang San and Xiao Wu likely would not even last three breaths.

Ye Zhiqiu initially estimated that if he opened the first three gates of the Eight Gates of Dunjia—Open, Rest, and Life—while adding his Sharingan, which had already evolved into Three Tomoe, he would be able to fight a Soul Elder without falling behind.

If he had spirit abilities as supplementary means, he could easily defeat a Soul Elder and contend with a Soul Ancestor.

Over the past year, Ye Zhiqiu had grown tremendously. Whether it was his combat techniques or the accumulation of his own foundation, both had increased explosively. The speed was so fast that even Ye Zhiqiu himself was astonished.

Seeing Tang San and Xiao Wu's slightly flushed faces from the intense exercise, Ye Zhiqiu regretfully gave up on continuing their sparring tonight. After all, the feeling of beating Tang San and Xiao Wu senseless was quite satisfying.

The three found a clean patch of grass and lay side by side in spread-eagle positions. As they rested, they looked up at the stars filling the night sky and felt the faintly cool night breeze, enjoying a rare sense of leisure.

Ye Zhiqiu rested both hands beneath his head, his eyes gazing into the night sky slightly unfocused. How much longer could these carefree, playful days last? How far would he grow in the future? Would he become a god? And then be constrained by the divine realm of this universe?

"Ah Qiu, you're going to Soul Hunting Forest tomorrow, right?" Tang San suddenly asked.

Ye Zhiqiu paused, then slowly came back to himself and replied softly, "That's right. There are less than ten days left before the holiday. It's about time for me to obtain a spirit ring. Otherwise, once this year passes, I might not be able to enter Nuoding Intermediate Soul Master Academy with you."

In truth, Ye Zhiqiu's main reason for wanting to enter Nuoding Intermediate Soul Master Academy was that he had already sheared all the sheep at this junior academy bald. There was simply no more profit to be had.

"Be careful." Tang San seemed to want to say something else, but when he remembered how he and Xiao Wu together had been easily crushed by Ah Qiu, he finally understood that Ye Zhiqiu was no longer the Ye Zhiqiu he had once known. Before he realized it, his friend had already grown to a point where Tang San needed to look up to him.

Thinking of this, Tang San sighed softly. He could only marvel inwardly at the power of Ye Zhiqiu's martial soul. Not only did it possess mysterious and unfathomable Illusion Techniques, but it could also continuously strengthen the body. Was this the Body Martial Soul? Xiao Wu lowered her eyelids, her mood somewhat low. Whenever people around her discussed hunting spirit beasts, she always became like this.

At that moment, a hand suddenly gently rubbed her little head. Xiao Wu looked over and saw that it was Ye Zhiqiu.

"Little rabbit, you're still too weak right now. You can't change anything. Work hard and become stronger. In the future, you'll be able to make the rules yourself. You can't sympathize with every spirit beast in the world, and some spirit beasts aren't worth your sympathy."

After leaving those words behind, Ye Zhiqiu got up and returned to the dormitory to sleep.

Only Tang San, wearing a bewildered expression, and a Hundred Thousand Year Humanoid Soul Beast pretending to remain calm were left behind.

Xiao Wu was somewhat shocked. Had she been discovered? Or was Brother Qiu merely saying it casually?

However, the moment she thought of Brother Qiu's strange eyes, Xiao Wu felt there was a high chance she had been discovered. Still, she was not too worried. So what if she had been found out? Xiao Wu always believed that Ye Zhiqiu would never run off and report her. After living together for a year, they all had a fairly good idea of what kind of people the others were.

Other than occasionally drooling strangely at Xiao Wu, Ye Zhiqiu treated her like an older brother would treat his younger sister.

It was just that this older brother could occasionally be sharp-tongued and was not as gentle as Tang San.